


For Want of a Key

by didsomeonesayventus



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Character Death, Ficlet, Gen, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2019-03-24 06:37:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13805559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/didsomeonesayventus/pseuds/didsomeonesayventus
Summary: "For want of a nail the shoe was lost.For want of a shoe the horse was lost.For want of a horse the rider was lost.For want of a rider the message was lost.For want of a message the battle was lost.For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.And all for the want of a horseshoe nail." -Proverb





	For Want of a Key

He did it. He finally escaped Sora’s shadow, the looming, ever-present mockery of the title that was rightfully his. He was the knight. Riku was the hero and he’d finally taken care of the stupid boy stopping him. Blood on his hands smelled like iron, the body so close to him still reeked of the sweat brought forth from a fight for the life now extinguished.

On cue, the princess he had fought- and killed -so valiantly for woke up. Her heart had fled the young hero’s body and returned, huddling in its home for only a moment before frantically rousing Kairi from slumber.

She sat up.

She turned.

Her eyes went wide.

Riku seemed paralyzed, eyes wide with some sort of rabid frenzy, his keyblade right through-

“Sora?” Kairi gasped, but it did not break the scene. She scrambled backwards, realizing there was too much red, too much stillness- it was too much. Voices she had heard only in dreams howled and wailed his name from behind her, inconsolable and any other word purged from their minds. So it had to be a nightmare then? She was only dreaming?

Riku finally had to lower his blade. Sora’s corpse- his corpse, _god_ \- slid off it into a discarded heap on the floor. This tin soldier had lost more than a leg in pursuing his delicate dancer. Kairi did not understand the way Riku slowly turned to look at her, blood splashed across one cheek, wounds open on his body, eyes so wide all she could see was white that blended into his skin, with his mouth drawn thin into non-existence. It was a vacant canvas of a face. It was not Riku. Whoever this was, it was something horribly numb, blank. Something empty, moldable, a puppet ready to kill for his chance.

She looked at the boy who had saved her, the kind, radiant light snuffed out too soon. He was nothing but red, nothing but stillness. He was no longer light, he was no longer warm. He had changed in a way none of them had ever expected him to, none of them had ever wished him to. He was just red and Riku was white. It wasn’t fair. Red was the color of life, red was vibrant and passionate and always more welcome than the deathly pallor of white.

Whoever Riku had become raised his blade, and if she could strain her ears she could hear him still, lifeless and abandoned under the booming echo of a voice she had heard in the memory of a memory, the nightmare of a nightmare too real, “So at last, Princess, you-”

He stopped, jerked. He was like a wind up doll running on those last desperate turns. Something blue returned to his gaze. Kairi could not bring herself to stand then, and she could not now. Even as gloved hands grasped her shoulders and voices begged her to follow them, she didn’t even dare to stand. One hand hovered just over her mouth, the other extended itself, pleading. She wanted to know why, how, anything. How did this unease she had felt since the start of this journey escalate into a blood-curdling terror, simple jealousy stoked into a bitter rage that had stolen a life? She wanted so desperately to ask it, and yet it remained in her mind: _Riku, why?_

Something cracked in the vacancy. Eggshell white burst open to birth a grief and regret Kairi thought she would never see in a hundred lifetimes.

“ _Go._ ” He begged. “ _ **Kairi just go!**_ ” He pleaded. Tears melted on his face, blurred white onto white, blue into red. The hands pulled her back, the voices kept layering on each other: leave, go, run, flee, get out of here.

She stood, ran, and never looked back.

**Author's Note:**

> this was inspired by the lovely chababe and their totally not called for comic (here: https://chababe.tumblr.com/post/171298005571/and-angst)


End file.
